Some of the Details

All of our prayers were answered with a smooth birth of our baby girl...even down to the day she was born. For a few different reasons, I really needed to be able to work on August 1st so I was hoping Addison wouldn't make an early appearance.  My mom came up to Houston the night of July 30th bc she had an 8am dr's appt on the 31st that she had made last summer.  My mom was praying and hoping that Addison would be born on the night of the 1st or on the 2nd so she would have the most time with her before she had to head back home on the 14th.  On August 1st, I headed into work feeling normal and worked til about 2pm.  Mom and I met at the nail salon, and we had a mani/pedi as a late bday treat for my mom and so our nails would look good for Addison's arrival.  That evening, Patti came down, and we headed to El Tiempo for dinner.  I started not feeling well at dinner, but I definitely didn't think I was in labor.  My belly was constantly cramping, but it wasn't coming and going like I imagined contractions should be like.  We came home, watched some of the Olympics and headed to bed around 11.  I woke back up at 2:30am with a cramping belly but still wasn't 100% convinced that I could be in labor.  Jason just happened to wake up around 4:30am and noticed I was awake.  At that point, we decided to start timing contractions, and they were consistently around 4-5 minutes apart.  He went downstairs to get me a glass of water around 5am, and my mom heard him walking around and woke up as well.  I was started to really hurt at this point, but Jason and I were both afraid to go to the hospital too soon.  I got up and showered, and then I got sick.  My mom finally convinced us that we should head to the hospital since it was about 30 minutes away.  Jason loaded everything in the MDX, and we headed down to leave.  As a last thought, we told him to grab an old towel in case my water broke and a bowl in case I got sick again.  At that point, reality set in, and Jason decided we wouldn't be taking our new car to the hospital and transferred everything to the Tahoe.  haha  We arrived at the hospital around 7:15am and headed up to labor and delivery.  When we showed up, they sent us down to the labor testing area since they didn't have any delivery rooms available at the time.  They had me sign papers, got my IV started, etc.  Only one person was allowed in the room at a time so my mom was just waiting out in the hall.  The nurse informed me that I was only 1.5 cm dilated at that time, and I was really disappointed and thought we were going to be in for a long day.  Jason needed to use the restroom and wanted to make a few phone calls so he asked my mom to come in with me while he did that.  While they were switching posts, my water broke around 8:30am.  At that point, the pain got significantly worse.  The nurses started working at a faster pace and made arrangements to get me in a delivery room asap.  My mom grabbed all of our stuff, and the nurse started wheeling me upstairs.  My mom was texting Jason to come to the delivery room.  On our way up to delivery, I was in the worse pain of my life.  I was counting down the seconds until I could get my epidural.  We got on the elevator, went up one floor, the door began to open and then got STUCK.  It was only open about six inches and wouldn't budge.  The nurse was on red phone asking maintenance to get up there STAT.  It was seriously like a scene in a movie.  We were probably only in there a few minutes before the 2 biggest guys we had ever seen showed up and pulled that door open.  The nurse took off running down the hall pushing me in the wheel chair towards the delivery room.  In the meantime, my mom had sent Jason several texts, but his phone wasn't getting service.  He got all the messages at one time and started to panic.  He headed to the room that my mom told him we were going to, and he was waiting outside the door.  The room was empty so he thought we just hadn't arrived yet.  He eventually asked someone and realized that he was in the wrong wing.  He sprinted over to where we were.  At 9:05am, the anesthesiologist showed up and gave me the epidural.  I felt 2 more bad contractions after that, and then just tingly legs.  I was 8 cm dilated at that point.  Deanna showed up at the hospital at that point, and the nurse called my doctor and told her that we would be ready for her shortly.  She mentioned that she was in her Pearland office and needed to see a patient at 11am before coming to the hospital.  The nurse was worried I wouldn't make it that long, but I decided I wanted to try to wait for her since I wasn't in pain anymore.  The baby kept moving lower and lower, and the nurse kept telling me to just relax and not to push.  My doctor showed up at noon and got all of her stuff together.  When she was ready, I pushed 3 times, and in less than 5 minutes our precious baby girl was placed on my chest.  It was so surreal, and I didn't know I was capable of loving anything so much.  They took the baby to weigh her, etc and then brought her back to Jason and I.  My mom wanted to take our family picture, but unfortunately, I started feeling super nauseated again.  Jason took the baby, and I proceeded to be sick again.  We had some more time to spend with Addison before they took her to the nursery for her bath and newborn screening.  Jenn and Jason came to the hospital to visit Addie and brought us chick fil a for lunch.  We were eventually moved to a postpartum room, and Addison was brought back to us all clean and cuddly.  I was finally feeling better and felt like I could truly enjoy our new baby at that point.  I fell in love with Jason all over again watching how smitten he was with his baby girl and how much he took care of me in the hospital. It was a day I will never forget and will be forever grateful to God that he blessed Jason and I with a family.  Addison is an answer to so many prayers, and she has stolen her daddy's and my heart.

 After the epidural and feeling much better

 Seeing our girl for the first time

 Jason got to cut the cord

 Our 8lb 2oz chunky baby

 Footprints

 Melt my heart.  I love these two more than words.

 Mama and baby

 The proud grandmas

 Getting her first bath

 Seeing Addie after her bath.  I was finally feeling better and got to really enjoy some sweet moments with our baby girl.

 Family of three!!

Three generations

 Mimi and her girl

 My dad drove in the night Addie was born and brought her a light-up Barbie fishing pole and brought me some beautiful flowers.  Love my dad!

Everyone had been saying Addison would come on the 2nd bc it was a full moon.  I blew it off as an old wives tale, but when we asked the nurse, she said something about the barometric pressure can make people go into labor.  Kind of a fun story that she was born on a full moon though.  :)

The sign on our hospital door.